Same, Same, but Different
by ratpigeon
Summary: Ichigo and his Hollow both contemplate what it means to share a soul... Of course, even when you share a soul, it doesn't mean that you can understand each other. VERY slightly yaoi. I OWN NOTHING. Also, Vizard is 'Visored', the manga version. please R&R.


Same, same but different.

_I'm me, and you're you. Or was that the other way around? Ichigo and his Hollow contemplate what it means to share a soul._

Okay, now, this just fits in anywhere after he gets the Visored/Vizard ability.

_*_

_I'm me..._

Ichigo sat in his room, after another one of the seemingly endless battles. Aizen's influence was reaching into the world, the hougyoku was getting closer and closer to being released, he still had no way to reach Hueco Mundo, and yet, sitting here, alone, watching the sun set outside his window, Ichigo felt strangely tranquil, just for this one moment between battles.

*

Hichigo leant back against a wall of the crazy cityscape that was his King's subconscious, unusually, for just a moment, the increasingly turbulent thunderstorms that had shredded the sky had receded to a glowing sunset of breath-taking beauty.

_It's just the colour of his hair. _Hichigo thought reaching one hand up to try and touch the sky. He treasured these moments. Even though Ichigo hadn't spoken to him in weeks, since they had fought, again, for control of his body.

Hichigo's face darkened slightly as he recalled the battle. How many times had he tried to show his King? How many times had he told that _thick skulled, __**fucking IDIOT-**_

He broke off as a cloud scudded across the setting sun. The weather was bad enough already, without him venting his frustration for his painfully naive King.

Ichigo was afraid of him. He feared the Hollow that had taken over his body, and fought with a skill and a rage beyond anything the substitute Shinigami could muster. He didn't _understand. _

Hichigo touched the deep scar on his chest, where Ichigo had stabbed him with Zangetsu. Of course, that wasn't the only scar he still wore from that battle. Every injury that he had inflicted upon Ichigo traced across his pale torso, twined around the fewer, but deeper ones that his King had given him.

These scars all marked where Ichigo had gotten stronger; where the King's Horse had run through swords for his master. They showed what it meant to share a soul.

And he would never understand, that piece of shit. A scowl ripped across Hichigo's face. He hadn't _asked _for this. To live under these skies, to be incapable of anything but wanting the _best _for his _King. _But even when he tried, even when he tried to rear under the bit and spurs of that fucking dumbass, all he needed was to see those brown eyes widen with pain and he was helpless again, the pain lanced through _his _limbs, until it was all he could do not to beg Ichigo to finish the battle, so that they didn't have to fight anymore.

Ichigo didn't understand. Hichigo thought, savagely digging his fingers into the half-healed scar over his chest. _His king was his _**world**_!_

_I'm you..._

*

_You're me..._

Ichigo gasped as he felt pain blossom briefly in his chest, and heard his hollow screaming in his mind. Angry and bitter '_fuck you_'s.

Ichigo's mouth twisted. He wished that there was some way to make his Hollow happy without giving up his body. Hichigo lived inside him,even, he admitted grudgingly, a part of his soul, like Zangetsu, and leant him strength. Maybe they really were the same. Either way, Ichigo felt it was his duty to make Hichigo be happy. If he truly was his 'King'.

"_You fucking piece of Shit!" _Ichigo winced as he heard the hollow beating against the walls of his mind, before, letting no hint of regret reach Hichigo, he tightened the walls around him, caging him back in the depths of his soul.

"Damn, the sunset's over." Ichigo watched the last trace of colour fade from the sky, before turning back to his room. Why, he wondered, did Hichigo persist in fighting? They both knew that he would never win, and as much as Ichigo distrusted the Hollow, it still pained him to have to fight his double, to wield his blade against someone that was closer than family... but of course if he let Hichigo catch even a breath of these thoughts, then all that would happen was another fight...

_I'm sorry, Hichigo. I'm not a very good King... _

*

Hichigo pressed his hands against the bars of the cage Ichigo had created. Even here he could feel the rain beginning to fall, and the droplets falling on his face made him want to scream.

"Hey, calm down, you." Hichigo fell silent as Ichigo appeared, the bright colours of his skin and hair a stark counterpoint to the endless white buildings.

"What do you want?" Hichigo snarled. _Come to whip you horse further? To look down on me, even though I do anything for you?_

"Why do you hate me?" Ichigo looked away, up at the cloudy sky, the raindrops of his own devising falling against his flaming orange hair.

Hichigo laughed. _Stupid stupid __**stupid!**_

"Why do you think king – you're pitifully weak." _But that's not true – it's my fault, I'm the one who can't fight with you for long enough..._

"I beat you." Ichigo said, turning back to his counterpart, his warm eyes like a spear. Hichigo snarled again, thrusting his arms through the bars of the cage as far as they would go, trying to reach his King, to strangle him, or...

"I didn't expect you to have a killer's instinct." The King was less than a step out of his reach, his eyes sad, and... regret. That was it. The emotion he felt whenever he couldn't protect someone. The very emotion that drove him to become a Visored. Why would the King look at his steed with regret?

"I don't think I do. I don't think I could hate someone that is a part of me; like you." The words froze the hollow, his fingertips brushing against the soft, black shinigami robe.

"If that's true, then take a step closer." Hichigo ran a blue tongue across his lips, not quite daring to believe... "If I'm a part of you, then I must be like you, however weak that may be."

Ichigo hesitated for a moment, regarding the amber and black eyes of the Hollow, before stepping forwards just enough that Hichigo could grip the King's robes and pull him close, so that both were pressed against the bars of the cage. Brown eyes met yellow, inches apart, as each regarded the other, wary, uncomprehending.

Hichigo leaned closer, until he could feel the slight unevenness in Ichigo's breath whispering against his lips.

"You're you may be King, but don't forget that I'm you, idiot." His tongue flicked out over his lips again as he pushed the king away, turning his back. "Now get the fuck away from here." Ichigo stood five feet from the cage, his breath running even more uneven as he covered his mouth with a hand, pale and shaken. He watched the white double of himself in the cage for a moment, before turning and walking away, fading as he did so.

Hichigo knew the instant that the Shinigami had left. It seemed that he had underestimated his King, again.

"Well, at least the rain stopped." He murmured, smiling as he tasted the faint flavour of Ichigo on his tongue.

_You're you..._

_King._


End file.
